Young Northland drama students win through to National Shakespeare Schools Production

Angharad Yearbury Murphy performs in Tauraroa Area School's winning 15-minute entry Coriolanus in the Annual Tai Tokerau SGCNZ Shakespeare Festival.

Northland drama students didn't let a little matter of the Covid-19 pandemic deter their efforts in the Annual Tai Tokerau SGCNZ Shakespeare Festival.

The Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) Festival is normally held in the last week of March and the students had been practising their performances since last year.

But Covid-19 restrictions meant they could not do their performances on stage in front of a large audience.

But performing via video hasn't hindered them with three Northland students chosen to go Dunedin to attend SGCNZ's National Shakespeare Schools Production later this month.

Two students from Whangārei Girls' High School, Nikki Shields and Paea Slade, and Tamaragh Potter from Tauraroa Area School have all been chosen from the SGCNZ e-National University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival to attend the week-long intensive of workshops and rehearsals.

Of Tauraroa Area School's winning Coriolanus, assessor John Gardyne said they had: ''strong choral work, creating incredible pictures with stylised movement and ritualistic stylised speaking, as well as presenting to the audience some very interesting ideas.''

This was an especially impressive achievement as the students were tasked with submitting their performance by video due to disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Lacey Davison from Kaitaia College was announced as the direct entry student to SGCNZ NSSP for their performance in the SGCNZ Regional Festival earlier in the year.

Tabitha Kaiser, teacher at Tauraroa Area School, had five groups enter this year, and said the drama students have got "the bug" and we are not talking Covid-19.

Angharad Yearbury Murphy and Potter, co-directors of the winning 15-minute entry Coriolanus have been planning their chorus rich entry since last year. They started rehearsing again as soon as they were able, after the lockdown; lunchtimes and after school.